2014-03-23 - Trouble at the U-Stored-it
It was coming out of Dalton's Bar. Ben was miserable. Reed was missing, attempts at contacting the Wakandan Embassy had been fruitless, even Johnny was making sense over on things more than Ben. But Ben's stony gut was telling him something was wrong. Just he couldn't narrow it down. And Johnny was right. So he just was walking out of the bar, upset at an evening newscast. The evening newscast was not something witnessed by The Question. The Faceless Vigilante has been out and away from a television all day. Where has he been? Scouring Queens. You know; Something most people would love to do on a weekend. His scouring has led him to a lot occupied by a franchise of the 'U-Stored-It' corporation. At some point in the day he climbed and lept over the chain-link fence used as 'security' of the premises and he's busily combing the avenues between rows of storage buildings. Each storage unit has an entryway consisting of a pressed-metal garage door. Glancing up and over in the direction of the storage units, Ben saw the fence shaking a bit. Harrumphing, glancing over in that direction, "Dogs after somethin'?" OR was someone doing a jump and grab? Ben began to wander lethargically over in the direction of the storage units. Gloved hands are stuffed into the oversized pockets of the trench the Faceless Man wears. Brim of his fedora pulled slightly lower over his eyes the moment his feet touched the pavement on the otherside of the fence. No-Face had no idea why he was here or what he really felt he would find. His investigation had led to a number of dead ends. A mix of intuition, eavesdropping and a smattering of desperation led him to this particular storage facility. Unseen eyes dart around the vacant complex looking for anything that piques his interest or screams 'go here' to him. Vic is out of Ben's sight. Ben isn't particularly observant, but he's seeing -some- things over shake in the area of the storage yard as Ben peers quizzically in. He's not seeing anything particularly bad, and not seeing any barking of dogs, so it doesn't seem like anyone is brekaing in. Probably a cat. Unknown to the Faceless Vigilante, a box truck slowly lumbered to the entry gate of the U-Stored-It facility. The vehicle had seen better days. There's a knocking and thumping that just isn't natural for the truck. The color of its exhaust is certainly something leaning towards a diagnosis of blown head gasket. The cab of the truck, meant for three people, seems to have managed to have four occupants. The storage compartment of the box truck is non-descript, lacking any logos, decals or paint... aside from some graffiti and dents on the rolling down that betray evidence of crowbar use. The gate to the facility screaches and whines as it slides open for the truck to gain entrence. The shuddering bit over of the truck spasming and heaving makes Ben wince, but it also gets him looking over in that direction.. Where Ben is able to notice otherwise the signs of crowbar use over a she goes, "Sunnuvagun.." Ben goes to stalk over in that direction, "Hey, ya guys look like ya had a bit of a breakin!" Ben jerks a stony thumb over in the direction of the crowbar'd pried open thigns and the men in the truck, waving. The screaching and whining of the motor system opening the gate to the complex elicits the attention of the Faceless Vigilante. There are a few storage buildings seperating Q from the main entry, but the sound is so shrill that it's enough to make him turn his head. He heads for an 'alley' between two storage buildings in an effort to avoid being seen by any patrons or supervisors of the U-Stored-It. The driver of the box truck starts to putt-putt the vehicle through the opened gate when Ben approaches and calls out. The driver had left the window open, since he needed to punch in codes into a keypad to open the gate. A startled look falls across his face and an expletive is uttered; Reactions of a jumpy or guilty man. Following those acts is another- Slamming a foot against the gas pedal. The box truck speeds up haphazardously into the U-Stored-It. Now at this point Ben knows that something is going wrong here as the truck accelerates and zooms on in then. "Whta a revoltin' development.." Seeing the truck zooming in then towards the place and not sure if anyone is over inside there, Ben is running forwards. Intent on if he can trying to catch up over with the truck then and trying to grab it if at all possible from his position to yank it by the bumper and hopefully hold it to a stop before it can get and smash over on in, "Hey kids, ya don't want to mes sup everyone's stuff in there." The Box Truck's acceleration and overall speed are nothing to call home about. Ben's easily fast enough to catch up and grab a hold of the bumper. When caught, the vehicle's back wheels screech and skid, leading a black streak just under the car. The Driver leans out of the opened window of the cab to find what he expected; The Thing holding the truck. He curses again and barks something to the other three inside the vehicle. The driver doubles-down on trying to escape. The accelerator is pressed all the way to the floor and the tries spin more. Ben will find the bumper is about as sturdy as it looks and it breaks away from the rest of the vehicle. The boxtruck bounces a bit as he drives forward in freedom. The Question, by now, has snaked his way through the paths of the complex and is witnessing what's going on. Q grimaces beneath his pseudoderm mask and breaks out into a run. The truck is coming his way and he aims to intercept it. The bumper comes off and the truck goes to surge forwards. At this point, Ben is hardly over in a position to make another grab for it and try and stop it and the yahoos over in the front of the cab are racing forwards with no control of the cab then, and likely going to smash over into things and get themselves killed, and Ben is hardly in a position to stop it. But he runs forwards anyways, trying to desperately yank over at the back of the trailer while flailing as it zooms ahead to try and force it to a stop before it smashes into things. Like a crazy man, The Question runs to intercept the careening vehicle. Why? That's a good question and one Vic would probably BS an answer for. Intuition and compulsion sometimes rule Vic's day. The whys are not important to Vic at the moment; Stopping the box truck is. Later, when Vic has time to relax and meditate he will remember that his subconscious recognition of the box truck gave him the impetous to move. When close enough, The Faceless man lept towards the driver's door of the cab. A thump and thud rang out in his ears when he made contact with the cab and a fortuitous hooking of his arm around the side mirrow kept him from bouncing off the vehicle. Q grumbles to the driver through the opened window, "Is this the two-thirty-two?" Clearly the truck is not a bus. Ben is still faster than the speeding vehicle. The storage complex doesn't really allow for a derelict box truck to get up to speed very fast. So, Ben manages to grab it again soon after Q attaches himself to the cab. The act makes everyone inside the truck and Q jerk forward at the sudden stop. Ben Grimm manages to grab the back end of the trailer, which thankfully given the condition over of the hitch of it does not break off like the rest of it. Ben digs his feet over into the pavement, digging up stones from the ground as the engine seizes forwards then and the van comes over to a stop, "Now then, ya kids going to mind tellin' me what the sam hill is goin' on here?" And the Faceless Man gets a wary glance. But Ben recognized him moving to try and help save the kids inside, so Ben will give him a pass for now then and give him the benefit of the doubt, even if it's likely he was the one who was using the crowbar over in the first place. Vic grunts, groans and there's a forced expulsion of air from his lungs as he smashes up against the side mirror of the truck when it's forced to a stop. Pushing the pain and discomfort down, Q focuses on the task at hand; Stopping the truck. He reaches into the cab, while the four inside are still dazed, and twists and pulls out the truck's keys. With that task down, he releases his grip on the mirror and falls uncerimonously to the pavement. Inside the cab of the suddenly stopped vehicle, the four guys inside grunt and groan. The driver slammed his head into the steering wheel and the others flung forward against the dash of the vehicle. This is why you need to wear your safety belts, kids. They recover quickly, though. The truck wasn't going that fast and adrenaline is helping in their recovery process. One of the men mutters something about grabbing a shotgun. Another utters something about the contents of the back of the truck. Ben would have probably felt a rattling or motion inside the back of the box truck when he stopped the vehicle. Ben Grimm glances over at the Question, "And you okay? You need me ta call a doctor?" Ben can see that he hit it at a bad angle and from what Ben can tell the Question wasn't wearing any armor of a sort underneath his trench coat, so Ben is making sure over that he doesn't have any broken ribs. That done, Ben would jerk a thumb over at the teens, "And you guys be sure and behave now." Ben goes over towards the back of the truck, ready to deftly open the trailer door. The Question rolls over onto his stomach and with one arm pushes himself up to his knees while his other arm performs the important task of holding his tenderized ribs. He grunts at Ben's question, "I'm fine; Endured worse." He slowly gets up to his feet. The back rolling door of the box truck is easily opened by Ben. Its latching mechanism had long ago been distored and broken by a crowbar. The door screaches open on warped tracks. The door opens to reveal a half-filled storage comparment. Boxes, crates and printing machinery. The guys inside the truck recover to the point that they open the doors to the busted up truck. They must have had shotguns stowed under the seats of the truck, because they are all carrying them when the leave the cab. The situation just escalated. Printing press' may not be against the law. But.. Ben turns over to face the men, "Look, you yahoos can't hurt me with thsoe pigstickers and yer violatin' about ten different rules on conceal 'an carry. So I'm gonna ask you once now ta behave, or this is gonna get worse." Ben glances over at Question, "And sorry fer bringin' this on yer head. If I hadn't busted my way in you'd have handled it without a fuss." There's the very cliche pump of shotguns preceding a threatening posture and words, "I don't think so." This action and words come from the first guy out of the passenger side of the cab. To back up this guy, the two others that scooted out of the side of that side of the cab pump their shotguns. The Driver, independent of the other three makes sure his weapon is loaded as well. He calls out to Ben, "You can't handle all of us!" Q stands there, grabbing his side. He says to the representative of the F4, "You didn't know." He then asks Ben, "What's inside the truck?" Q's question is immediately answered by the driver in the form of the butt of the shotgun. He stepped up to him and whacked him across his featureless face. Ben grunts, "Whole buncha printing press things 'an pamphlets it looks like. Or someone was bringin' in a lot of heavy stuff." Ben goes over to glance at the men as they whap at Q, "And sorry kids, that was yer last chance. I warned ya. Clobberin' Time!" Ben goes to smash his footdown over on the ground, trying tp ut himself in front of Q. Not enough to shatter the pavement, but enough to register over on the Richter Scale. The box truck rumbles due to the force of The Thing's stomp. Heavy printing equipment shudders, shakes and tips over inside the truck. A couple of crates fall from their stacks and break open upon landing on the floor of the truck; printing plates scatter about inside the truck. The guys with shotguns become disoriented and loose their balance. Their lack of balance changes their priorities from shooting Ben and Q to not falling on their posteriors. The Question dropped to a knee after getting clobbered by the driver's shotgun. This leaves him in an advantageous position when the ground briefly shakes from Ben putting his foot down. As the Driver tries to keep his footing, The Question swings the hand he's not holding his side with. The hand is swung open, with his palm parallel with the ground. The shop is aimed at the driver's knee in an endeavor meant to take away his ability to stand for several days. There's a crack and a scream from the driver when hand meets leg. Ben Grimm slams his stony hands together, "So now if all you yahoos want we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Ben goes to grab over at the discarded bumpber that had yanked off in the first place, going to twist it in half over like a twistie tie, "And the hard wya involves you louses bein' in traction fer six ta eight months fer threatening my friend here when he was doin' his neighborly duty. You wanna go in life takin' in yer food through a sippy straw?" It appears Vic hit the driver pretty good. He crumpled to the ground screaming; his leg bent very unnaturally as he fell. If Q was more into quip he may have shouted 'timber', but this is a serious situation. After the driver hits the ground he yells out to the other three with shotguns, "Kill 'em! Oh god, it hurts! Kill them idiots!" By now the three other mooks with shotguns have regained their footing and ignore the Ever Lovin' Blue Eyes Ultimatum. They all point their boomsticks at Ben and start opening fire. The Question gets back up to his feet and is thankfully separated from the other three guys by the derelict vehicle. He uses the vehicular barrier to his advantage. He reaches down for the disabled driver, yanks him by the collar and drags him to the side of the truck. He slams him hard against the side of the vehicle, pulls his arm so that it's in the way of the opened door and then slams the door onto the guy's arm. He holds the door there amidst the guy's screams of agony and cries for him to stop. The bullets ping off of Ben. He doesn't really even notice them at this point, he's been shot with a lot worse. BUckshot at close range doesn't even register then as the broadsides they give him don't chip much off the old block of a head. Ben goes to storm towards them, "Look kids, I'm from Yancy Street. And we don't appreciate knuckleheads like you who are dumb enough ta think that ya can be this dumb and.." Ben goes to try and swing his twisted up bumper lver like a baseball bat, targeting over the shotguns that the kids are carrying, trying to whap them away, "So watch where ya point those things or yer' gonna shoot yer eyes out." The three shotgun wielding mooks soon lose the descriptor 'shotgun wielding' with the swing of a bumper. The mooks find themselves grabbing at their hands from the forceful effort by Ben to free them of their weapons. The shotguns clang and clatter uselessly against the side of the box truck... one of the shotguns even inbeds itself into the side of the old truck rather comically. The mook being assaulted by Vic screams and cries as the door is repeatedly opened and slammed onto his arm. Q asks in a calm manner, "What's in the truck?" The guy crying answers, "I don't know!" The 'o' sound in the last word is elongated in a manner that would indicate the driver believes what he is saying, "W-w-we were hired to transport only! We- OWW!" The driver is interrupted by another slam of the car door; His radius and ulna having been shattered three slams ago, "-Oh, god man. He gave us the code and the keys to a storage unit. He's going into hiding. H-he-he told us to watch out for a No-Face Guy!" Ben Grimm glances over at Vic Sage then, "Well, ya kids got one go at this. Either ya can be very nice with the man who has made it clear he can turn yer legs inside out?" Ben towers over the remaining trio as menacingly as he can, "Or you can leave it ta me to twist ya up over like ya're a buncha plumbin' goin' down ta city hall and we can see how many times ya can tie someone's arm in and on itself before it breaks off. So ya kids give our faceless firend here everything ya've got or I'll make ya wish you had." The screams of the driver and the sound of the repeated slamming vehicle door, mixed with their sudden inability to shoot shotguns that they no longer possess... and of course the looming, rocky, inhuman Thing standing over them is enough to finally break these stupid guys. The three of them start backing up away from Thing almost in unison. A couple of curse words are uttered and one man finally says what they're all thinking, "Let's get outta here!" The three of them run away from the scene in three separate directions. The shouts and cries of agony of their former comrade-in-arms echoing behind them. Speaking of the driver, he's lost all inhibitions towards telling Vic the truth. He's a tear-drenched, crying and broken man at this point. Vic asks, "Was it Joey who put you up to this? He's going into hiding? Good. You answered what I need answered." He reaches down to the broken man and searches him. After a couple of seconds of his gloved handing patting him down, he relieves the former driver of a set of keys. He lets go of the door and steps away from him. They're a bunch of dumb, terrified kids that likely know nothing. They're disarmed and splitting up. Ben doesn't tkae them as threats at this moment and figures either they'll get a good lesson in the school of hard knocks given how terrified they are at the moment or they'll be dumb enough that someone else will get them soon enough. "Hey, you get what ya needed?" Ben glances over at the Faceless Man and his blubbering kid, "I just wanna know if I can call an ambulance and the cops fer the kid once ya get whatever it is yer after then." The Faceless man slips the keys into his trench's pocket and goes back to gripping his side; His focus shifting from getting answers to his own injuries. The Vigilante looks to Ben and shrugs with a wince at his side's tenderness, "You can do anything within your power. I won't attempt to stop you." A glance is spared back towards the broken driver before looking back at Ben, "I'm less inclined, personally." Q moves towards the back of the busted truck, "And yeah; I've got what I was after for now. My wants are fickle though- They change like the direction of the wind." Ben Grimm glances over, "Well so long as yer done then. Ya aren't gonna go back for whatever they had stuck in the can are ya? I just wanna know if I shoudl give ya five or ten minutes before puttin' somethin' in as a concerned citizen. And what should I call ya then when the cops ask over fer a statement?" The Question shakes his head, "If you'd give me ten to fifteen to find the storage unit and for me to rummage through it, then call NYPD, I'd be much obliged. And no; I have nothing to say to the police. I don't have a positive reputation among those proporting to enforce the law." Q reaches into the back of the box truck and produces one of the plates, a plat to print counterfeit currency, that fell from the crates. He harumphs at it, "This is it." He utters out loud before turning and heading towards the storage units. He no longer has to check each unit one by one... the key he pocketed had a unit number scribbled on it. Ben Grimm ndos over, "Got it then. I'm sure our lil' friend here willlikely be blubberin' enough ta 'em, so figure that anything he told ya htey'll be gettin'." Ben knows the ways how it works for the costumed crowd on the peripherals of things, and Vic seems like a good enough sort over to him. The kids are still alive after all. "Sure. Just give me a signal when yer done." It didn't take long for Vic to locate the storage unit in question. It also did not take the Faceless Vigilante more than a minute to gain access to it. This leaves the better part of the ten to fifteen minutes that Vic requested for searching the unit. He doesn't even know what he's looking for; But he does pull a small, inexpensive digital camera out of a pocket somewhere. Miraculously it didn't break in the scuffle and excitement. Some pictures are taken and a couple of items are palmed and kept. Then he exits the unit and leaves the garage-style door open. The signal Ben asked for? He doesn't get one. Vic left the opposite way of the entrence, hopping a fence to gain exodus from the storage facility. After fifteen minutes, he assumed Ben would consider the lack of a signal... as the actual signal. And Ben is smart enough to get that. About fifteen to twenty minutes later, Ben goes ahead and puts in a 'concerned citizen' call over at a pay phone. Which strangely enough they still have over in Brooklyn. And so, the remaining kid left tied up over in a rather long bumper that's been punched into the ground and the cab left, Ben walks away whistling.